Birmingham: Staying Ahead of the Curve in the “New London”

The second largest city in the UK, Birmingham’s population is growing rapidly – and so is its infrastructure and business environment...

Since HSBC relocated its headquarters from Canary Wharf to Birmingham last year, it has become an increasing popular notion that the city is becoming a new business and financial hub for the UK – or perhaps a “New London”. Head of HSBC UK hints at why: “The city is going through a revitalisation that makes it an attractive destination for businesses and people”.

Growth, jobs and developments

In 2017 alone, there were 12,108 businesses set up in the city, with key sectors experiencing growth including finance, digital, construction, distribution and automotive. Growing business means an increasing supply of jobs; HSBC’s move alone is expected to have created over a 1000 jobs, whilst HM Revenue & Customs' plans to open a regional hub in the city will create 3,000 more jobs next year.

With an influx of business and new recruits, it’s no surprise that impressive commercial construction schemes are popping up around the city. Notable recent developments include Arena Central, The Cube, The Jewellery Quarter and Assay Studios.

Four new commercial construction schemes began in 2017, adding to the city's development pipeline of 1.4 million sq ft.

Pictured: The Cube

The domino effect

With growth comes a range of challenges. How can existing businesses avoid being shadowed by the newcomers? How can firms ensure they are attracting the latest talent when competition within their sector keeps increasing?

The key lies in taking a step back and looking at your office. The workplace is a tool that can aid a company in staying ahead of the competition, but only if it’s a place where people want to come to work, and somewhere where they can achieve their full potential – regardless of their job role.

Yet these generalisations can’t be assumed. Instead, vital to any modern workplace is offering choice. Regardless of age, individuals have different working styles and needs. By offering choice, firms in competitive markets such as Birmingham’s can stay ahead of the curve – in terms of innovation, productivity and workplace wellbeing.

Rethink's Birmingham office refurbishment means their space now caters for a multitude of working styles, and will therefore help the firm to attract the latest talent.

No strangers to the Birmingham market

We’ve been based in Bath for over 26 years and are always poised to work in further afield locations. In recent years, we have completed some inspirational workplaces in London, Swindon and Reading (to name just a few), and one of our most recent projects took us right into the heart of the Midlands.

Keen for a unique and inspiring workspace that reflected their ever-growing standing in the industry, Rethink turned to Interaction for their Birmingham office refurbishment - and were thrilled with what our project team achieved. Group Operations Manager Marc Hughes commented how: "Interaction once again have provided a work of art! With our Birmingham office design and fit out being the third time we've worked with the team, their design concept was even more progressive than the last; the team took both our brand and evolving culture to create not just a workspace, but somewhere for teams to work and play".

Do you want your Birmingham business to stay ahead of the curve? It all starts with a conversation.